1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to winter sports equipment known as snowboards, and more particularly to an improved snowboard and methods for making same.
2. Statement of the Prior Art
Snowboarding is fast becoming one of the most popular winter sports for today's youth. According to Ski Industries America (SIA), a national, nonprofit, member-owned trade association representing more than one thousand snowboard, skiing, and on-snow product manufacturers, distributors, and suppliers, the average age of riders responding to the 1995 SIA Snowboard Survey is 22. Most riders (38%) are in the 12-17 age group, but 36% are ages 18-24 and 18% are ages 25-34. Men outnumber women by a three-to-one margin. In Nagano, Japan, at the 1998 Winter Olympics, snowboarding will become an Olympic medal sport.
Nearly 80% of the respondents to that survey have their own snowboard. Of such respondents, 58% own one snowboard, 30% have two snowboards, 6% own three snowboards, and 6% have four or more snowboards. Snowboards, like snowboarders, come in a variety of sizes and shapes. Most popular are the so-called "freeriding" and "freestyle" type snowboards, which are used by nearly ninety percent of all snowboarders. According to the SIA, freeriding boards are designed to perform on a variety of terrain under varying conditions, from bumps to groomed steeps to knee-deep powder in the trees. Freeriding boards are usually directional, meaning they have a distinct nose and tail. While they can also be ridden backwards, optimal performance comes with the nose pointed downhill. Freestyle boards, on the other hand, have twin tips--the nose and tail are shaped equally, for riding forwards and backwards. These boards are favored for riding in halfpipes and snowboard parks, where riders perform skateboard-like tricks. Freeriding boards are generally longer--in excess of 180 centimeters, while freestyle boards run between 140 to 160 centimeters. Nearly all freeriding and freestyle boards are used with soft boots.
Ten percent of the survey's respondents had no idea what kind of snowboard they used, but 2% admitted using a racing type of snowboard, commonly referred to as an alpine or carving snowboard. Such snowboards are designed for long, arcing turns on groomed slopes. Alpine snowboards are fully directional, with a flat tail, and meant to be ridden only forward. Unlike freeriding and freestyle snowboards, which are usually ridden with soft boots, riders on alpine snowboards utilize plate bindings and hard plastic boots similar to ski boots. Alpine snowboards are popular with many crossover skiers because of the similar boots and the ski-type turns. A snowboarder's stance with hard boots is forward and aggressive--like skiing, as opposed to the more relaxed surf or skate-type stance used with soft boots.
Wood core "cap" construction, a technique which wraps a wooden core in fiberglass and covers the top and sides with a one-piece cap for snappy response, is widespread in the snowboard industry. Certain other designs (e.g., Morrow's 3D Revert freestyle snowboard) have rods which impart progressive flexibility and strength to the snowboard, while others (e.g., Killer Loop's freestyle Trick snowboards) use a modified "fiber tube" cap construction to provide for lighter weight and increased control. Traditionally, however, a laminated wood core construction with no cap has been used.
Women's and children's snowboards are typically "softer" and shorter. For example, since the transference of a snowboarder's weight from heel-side to toe-side is a fundamental element of turning a snowboard, it is vitally important to provide snowboards with a greater propensity for flexibility to enable the generally smaller-sized women and children to control turning of their snowboards.
One significant problem with most snowboards today is "creep". Creep is the property of a material to deform under constant load, and snowboards of the prior art experience such creep in use and in storage. Creep causes a snowboard to lose its camber, a characteristic which would not only affect the performance of the snowboard (e.g., its ability to perform skateboard-like tricks in halfpipes and snowboard parks), but also likely ruin it entirely.